GEO-POLITICS OF OILTRADING: SCANNING THE GLOBAL BUSINESS SCENE

Fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas, meeting nearly 85% of the global energy demand, constitute the backbone of many petrochemical based and allied industries- prominently in energy, commercial, domestic and transport sectors. The demand for these resources is presently high from the developed economy; but the projected demand in the next decade is predicted to be higher from the developing economies, especially from BRIC’s such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. The demand-supply equation has been artificially disrupted off-and-on by creating a divide across OPEC and Non-OPEC oil producing and exporting countries, which, in turn, are attributable to such factor as geo-politics, causing both trade distortions in one hand, regional and economic imbalances on the other. The paper highlights the various aspects and dimensions of geo-politics in oil-trading in the global business scene and seeks to suggest future strategies and options to minimize the negative impact of geo-politics on the global economy by resorting to certain positive policy interventions- both at the regional as well as global levels.